The present general inventive concept relates generally to a ceramic substrate, and more particularly, to ceramic composite substrate that, with proper construction and proper excitation, can generate uniform plasma throughout the substrate for fluid flow treatment to influence a change in its chemical, electrical or physical properties, and method for generating plasma through the substrate.
Air pollution controls typically involve the filtering out of particulate matter as well as gas phase chemical pollutant treatments. Common methods of particulate removal employed today include candle filters, cyclone separators, electrostatic precipitators, and membrane filters. Gas phase pollution controls include packed beds, scrubbers, absorbers, capturers, incinerators, and condensers. All of these techniques are designed to be implemented at a few hundred degrees C. or less, which is fine for most air pollution sources in operation today. However, emerging technologies and power plant methods such as the production of syngas through gasification of various feedstocks would optimally require syngas filtering at temperatures around 1000 C. None of the above techniques can accomplish this, and there is no established technology that has been implemented on a wide-scale basis that can meet this need.
The present general inventive concept can meet the need of both particular removal and gas phase chemical treatment, all while being self-cleaning at these temperatures. Further, unlike and superior to the known prior art, the present general inventive concept is operational at room temperature and above, including temperatures around 1000 C. A hot syngas stream filtering technique that is both effective and has long term reliability, such as the present general inventive concept, will enable emerging gasification processes to become economically competitive to traditional energy sources.